RUNNERS

Cheryl LavinCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Even rich people can sometimes get a little funny about money. Take Rose Kennedy. She had some of the extension phones taken out of her multimillion-dollar home to save herself a fast $6.50 a month. One of her donations to the Hyannis Port thrift shop was one of Teddy Kennedy`s old sneakers. The irony here, as her personal secretary, Barbara Gibson, points out in ''Life With Rose Kennedy,'' was that while these petty economies were going on, the bill for the maintenance of the outdoor swimming pool was running over $600 a month.

Four months as an exchange student in Greece should have been a highlight in Bess Armstrong`s life, right? Wrong. ''It was the worst time,'' says the actress, who stars in the TV series ''All Is Forgiven.'' ''I said I was fluent in Greek. What I meant was ancient Greek; I could translate `The Iliad.` Of course, I couldn`t speak or understand a word of modern Greek. And I was sent to live in northern Greece, where no one spoke a word of English.'' And that was not the worst of it. ''There was a military coup going on, and I was under house arrest the whole time!''

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who keep their desks neat and those who keep them messy, and the first group is forever making the second feel guilty. But in the April Discover magazine eminent Joycean scholar Hugh Kenner, himself a messy-desker, offers hope. Noting that in any office 80 percent of the work involves 20 percent of the files, he believes that it`s justified to keep the 20 percent ''piled on your desk'' so that 80 percent of your needs can be satisfied by what`s instantly within reach from where you sit.'' Who can refute such logic?

REPLAYS

''It`s all right letting yourself go as long as you can let yourself back.'' Mick Jagger.

''The only absolute rule is: Never lose control of the show.'' Johnny Carson.

''Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.'' George Orwell.